The Tarot Cafe Epidode 4 Alternate Ending
by flying drumsticks
Summary: Tarot Cafe What I think should have happened to the heartless princess, the alchemist, and the jester. Feedback is appreciated. Rated M just to be sure.


**A/N:** What I think should have happened at the end of vol. 1/beginning of vol. 2 of The Tarot Cafe. Enjoy!

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The Tarot Café: The Heartless Princess, the Alchemist, and the Jester:

Part 2 Alternative

As the blood soaked through the jester's checkered sleeves, the alchemist's eyes widened. He ripped the costume from his beloved jester's chest, revealing a torso covered in cuts and welts. "Who did this to you?!" the alchemist shouted. "Don't worry, I will heal your wounds. But how did this happen?"

"Master, you told me to make the princess happy in any way I could," the jester explained. Blood dribbled from his mouth. "She didn't like my juggling act, but she smiled and laughed when she beat me. She was happy when she cut open my skin."

The alchemist hugged his living wax-doll creation close into his chest. Tears silently poured down the jester's face. "I'll take care of you," the alchemist promised. "That horrible princess will be gone. Gone!" He turned and strode out of the underground laboratory to find the princess.

Upstairs, the alchemist pounded twice on the door of the princess he thought he had loved. When she didn't answer, he forced the door open and entered her room. "What have you done to my jester?!" he demanded. "_What have you done?_"

"_Your_ jester?" the princess asked icily from her seat on the bed. "You gave him to me as a gift, in case you don't remember. That means I can do whatever I want with him. Besides, he's just a doll; what do you care what happens to him?"

"That jester is my creation. He is a living creature, not some inanimate doll. I will not have you acting this way," the alchemist loudly whispered in an enraged voice. The princess still had an icy look of indifference on her perfect but empty face. The alchemist looked her in the eye and said, "I want you to leave this house. _Now_."

"Leave? What makes you think you can just kick me out?" the princess asked coldly. "My father is the king, remember? You're making a big mistake here. I'll give a chance to take it back, but if you don't…" She walked across the room to her dresser and drew a knife out of the top drawer. "You saw the jester's…inflictions? You'll be exactly like him, but without a head if you don't take back what you said!"

The alchemist stood still, refusing to move and remaining silent.

"You asked for it," the princess said as she pointed the knife at the alchemist's heart and suddenly sprang toward him.

The alchemist panicked and grabbed the object closest to him – a lamp – as a weapon. He threw the lamp at the princess's head, but she ducked and it shattered against the wall with a clash. The princess lunged again, forcing the alchemist into a corner. Weaponless, he squeezed his eyes shut, knowing the end was at hand. Against his will, the alchemist's eyes launched open as the heartless princess drove her knife through his heart. The alchemist's world went black as consciousness flew away, and a moment later he was dead.

The jester, alone in the basement alchemy lab, heard the commotion and raced upstairs to investigate. When he reached the princess's room at the end of the hallway, a terrible sight met him. The princess, grinning maniacally, was standing over the alchemist's bleeding and lifeless body. The jester crouched down next to the alchemist's body, cradling his head. "Master!" he cried, tears streaming down his melancholy face. "Master, don't leave me! Don't leave me alone with her!"

"That's right, who's going to save you now?" the princess asked, evil grin still etched in place. She advanced on the jester with the knife raised.

The jester quickly leapt to his feet and sprinted out the door, along the hall, and back downstairs. The princess chased him, laughing wildly all the way. Downstairs, the jester ripped open the front door and made a dash for the surrounding woods.

"Come back here, you cowardly doll!" the princess screamed from the doorway. "It won't hurt! At least not that much," she added softly to herself.

The princess, unwilling to risk ruining her dress or her perfect looks, decided to wait for the jester to come back from the woods. The jester, however, never returned. Unacquainted with the terrain, he lost his way in the woods, doomed to wander forever amongst packs of wolves and other forest creatures.

And so the princess remained as cold and heartless as ever, while the alchemist lay dead and forgotten and his jester eternally haunted the woods.


End file.
